Shortland Street is celebrating 25 years on screen this month, and original cast member Michael Galvin can clearly remember the moment his life changed forever.
Galvin was backstage at Auckland’s now defunct Mercury Theatre in 1992, about to go on stage in a Tennessee Williams play, when he got news he had scored the role of Shorty’s ‘Dr Love’, Chris Warner.
“The call got patched through to the dressing room – nobody had cell phones back then – and I was told I’d got the part,” he tells New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. “I kind of collapsed on to the floor.
“Theresa Healey, who was in the play with me and later ended up being in Shortland Street [playing Carmen Roberts] thought something terrible
had happened.
“I said, ‘No, I got the role! I’m going to be on Shortland Street!’”
WATCH: The stars of Shortland Street talk to their 25-year-old selves
While Galvin is the show’s longest-serving cast member, after four years he did leave Shortland Street to “go off and find fame and fortune, which I didn’t”.
Four years later, in 2000, he was approached about returning to the show.
“So I came back and found my fame and fortune on Shortland Street, and I have been here ever since.”
For more from Michael Galvin and his time on Shortland Street, see the latest issue of New Zealand Woman’s Weekly.
